Hoops HD

NEWS, NOTES AND LINKS

–For our most recent Championship Week Video Notebook, where we review all of Sunday’s action and preview all of Monday night’s, as well as give you a complete viewing guide and update our Survival Board – CLICK HERE

-For all other Conference Tournament Information – CLICK HERE

-To see our NCAA Tournament Survival Board, which is the most valued and relied upon resource that is available to the Selection Committee (so says us) – CLICK HERE

-Tonight, we will be doing a Bracket Rundown Video Podcast where we build a consensus bracket involving all of us at Hoops HD, but in the meantime, here is John Stalica’s own personal bracket.

JOHN’S NOTES ON THE BRACKET

–Bracket was updated by John Stalica on Sunday, March 8th, at 11:30pm, est

-The bracket reflects all regular season games

-I did try to keep as many teams as possible closer to home in terms of who is hosting regional sites this time around. I know it’s been pointed out that Kentucky and Wisconsin would be top-heavy, but is permissible as long as there is overall regional balance. (Another note on Wisconsin – since they are more than 350 miles from any of the regional sites, I believe they are flying distance regardless of where they go). The 3 and 4 lines actually weren’t too hard to place here. As for the 4 seeds, Northern Iowa would be ahead of West Virginia on the S-Curve, but since they are flying distance regardless of Columbus or the West Coast, I opted to send them to Portland instead and give West Virginia a chance to play closer to home.

-As much as I wanted a UC-Ohio State matchup to take place, there were too many regular season rematches that had to be sidestepped. I also avoided matching up Kentucky/LSU and Duke/NC State even if they are permissible – I don’t want to schedule those unless I’m fairly certain they won’t face each other in conference tournament play.

-The opening-round matchups were also a little tricky since I didn’t want to send teams on a long flight out of Dayton after a Tuesday/Wednesday night game. I even considered bumping Wofford up to a 11 for procedural reasons, but I couldn’t make it work. As it was, I had to match up the top of the First 4 against the bottom of the First 4 to avoid conference matchups in this round and the round of 64.

-I put Harvard/Yale together on the 12 line because their profiles are almost interchangeable with one another in my view. They would have been a 13 seed if not for Murray State’s loss last night